Teaching Assignments

Teaching Assistant Assigments are posted here

It's worthwhile reading over the graduate and undergraduate program information. People in the department tend to refer to courses by number, so it's good to be generally familiar with the requirements, etc.

Graduate TAs are students first, employees second. The duties of the TA assigned to your course can be found here. 

Undergraduate Graders

Undergraduate Graders are hired for varying numbers of hours per week to assist faculty with grading homework papers; see the Undergraduate Grader Policy. They will begin work normally one week after class starts. Your grader will be contacting you before this date.  Please post your office hours on your door or website ASAP, so that the grader may contact you. Peter Corrao is the grader supervisor. Please see him immediately if you have any difficulties during the session: i.e., not turning in papers on time, misgrading, etc.

UNDERGRADUATE GRADERS ARE NOT TO USE DEPARTMENT EQUIPMENT (i.e., COPY MACHINES).

Graders are students first, employees second. The duties of the Grader assigned to your course can be found here. 

Textbooks

Here is a list of the textbooks to be used in the Math Department's core undergraduate courses.

If you are scheduled to teach one of these courses, please refer to the corresponding text when planning for the upcoming semester unless you have personally discussed an alternate selection with the Undergraduate Studies Committee. Book orders from the Math Department are sent to the University Co-op and Austin TXbooks stores, both on Guadalupe Street next to the University. See math departmental staff in PMA 8.100 if you need a desk copy for the course you are teaching.

Faculty-Authored Texts

Each year the department will approve the list of faculty authored texts as required by law. If you are the author of a text or other material that could be sold to students please let Tan Thai know so your name can be added to the list. The current list may be downloaded here. In addition, there is a form titled "Authorization to use Textbooks Written by a Member of the Staff at UT Austin" on the Provost's website.

Faculty Rights and Responsbilities

Rule 31004 of the Rules and Regulations of the Board of Regents defines the rights and responsibilities of all faculty members:

Freedom in Research.   Faculty members are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results.

Freedom in the Classroom.   Faculty members are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing his or her subject, but are expected not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter that has no relation to his or her subject. 

Clarification of Role.   Faculty members are citizens, members of learned professions, and officers of an educational institution supported by the State of Texas. When the faculty member speaks or writes as a citizen, he or she should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but should make it plain that the faculty member is not an institutional spokesperson.

Primary Duties.   The primary duties of a member of the faculty are to:

• Teaching.   Teach in the classroom, laboratory, seminar, or clinical setting.
• Research.   Study, investigate, discover, create, and develop professionally.
• Administration.   Perform curricular tasks auxiliary to teaching and research, e.g., serving on faculty committees, attending to administrative and disciplinary tasks, fostering intellectual curiosity and integrity in the student body.
• Contribution to Society.   Use their professional expertise to benefit society.

Compensation Restriction.   Full-time faculty or staff of the rank of instructor or above on 12-month appointments may receive additional compensation for correspondence course and/or extension center teaching, but may not receive additional compensation for summer school teaching. Full-time faculty on nine-month appointments may receive additional compensation for correspondence course and/or extension center teaching during the nine-month period and also may be paid for summer school teaching.

Textbook and Course Materials.   The policy of the Board of Regents concerning textbooks and other materials prescribed for the use of students is as follows:

• Choice of Materials.   Individual faculty members or the department should have discretion in the choice of materials to be used in the courses offered by the department.

Materials Authored by Faculty.   Although the authorship of books, outlines, manuals, and similar materials by members of the faculty and staff should be encouraged, the prescribed use of these for students is a responsibility that goes beyond that of the individual author. Whenever an approved fee includes a charge for such materials distributed through the classroom, the prices should be as low as possible, consistent with the payment of any required royalty to the author or authors.

• Required Approval.   Textbooks, notebooks, manuals, or other materials for the use of students of an institution, written or prepared by a member of the faculty of that institution, shall not be prescribed for the use of students in that institution or sold to such students until approved by the dean, chief academic officer, and president of an institution, pursuant to policies included in the institutional Handbook of Operating Procedures. At a minimum, these policies should provide for consultation with departmental faculty.

Nonsectarian.   In accordance with Texas Education Code Section 65.38, no course of instruction of a sectarian character shall be taught in the System.

Fees.   Faculty members without previous and special approval of the Board of Regents, shall not collect from students any fees or charges to be expended for institutional purposes, and shall not sell to students books, notes, or similar student supplies.

• Prohibited Fees.   A member of the faculty may not accept pay for extra instruction or teaching of students registered in the institution where he or she is employed.
• Allowed Fees.   With written approval, teaching assistants and other like instructional employees below the rank of an instructor may accept pay from students for extra-class instruction or coaching but only in courses or sections of courses with which they have no instructional connection. The Handbook of Operating Procedures of the institution shall specify the procedure for approval at the institutional level.

Class Rosters, Grade Submission, etc.

Most class-related paperwork is handled through UT Direct (the online paperwork system accessed via your UT EID). You just log on to UT direct, and there's a menu entry for Canvas, where you will find your classes.  UT direct URL: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/utdirect/. A very useful feature within CLIPS is the class photo roster.

First-day Handout or Syllabus

The first-day handout, which is mandated by state requirements and University rules, must spell out in fairly explicit terms how the various activities in a course (tests, homework, final exam, class participation, etc.) contribute to the determination of a final course grade. This applies to Graduate as well as Undergraduate courses. Do not make the mistake, however, of being too specific in this regard. You are, to a great extent, bound by the grading policy you announce in the handout, so you want to afford yourself some leeway for dealing with exceptional cases in an ad hoc fashion. It is strongly recommended that you include in this document a statement outlining your policy concerning make-up tests.

Syllabus Requirements

Each instructor must provide students with a syllabus for each undergraduate organized course (or section thereof) they teach to their home department or office (and any cross-listing departments or centers) by the first day of classes. To the extent practicable, the syllabus must include the following information by the first day: 

1. the course number and title;
2. the instructor’s name, office location, and office hours (note: office location is optional for the public version);
3. the names, office locations, and office hours of any teaching assistants (note: do not include in the public version);
4. an overview of the class including prerequisites, the subject matter of each lecture or discussion, and academic/learning goals for the course and how they will be assessed;
5. grading policy, including the means of evaluation and assignment of class grades, including whether plus and minus grades will be used for the final class grade and whether attendance will be used in determining the course grade;
6. a brief descriptive overview of all major course requirements and assignments, along with the dates of exams and assignments that count for 20 percent or more of the class grade;
7. a list of required and recommended materials, such as textbooks, image collections, audio and audiovisual materials, supplies, articles, chapters, and excerpts as appropriately identified by author, title, and publisher;
8. final exam date and time (found here);
9. the class website, if any; and
10. a notice that students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement (DDCE), Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at http://ddce.utexas.edu/disability.

In addition, we recommend that faculty include the following information on their course syllabi:

• A notice regarding academic dishonesty. UT Honor Code (or statement of ethics) and an explanation or example of what constitutes plagiarism (The University Student Honor Code is here.)
• A notice regarding accommodations for religious holidays. (Sample statement—“By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.”)

For additional suggested templates and guidance on writing an effective syllabus, please refer instructors to materials available on the Center for Teaching and Learning.

 The Department and CNS require the handout to (also) contain:

• If your course uses the Quest homework system, you must include information about the mandatory cost for using the system. The following paragraph (as of August 2019) was suggested.

• Information about drop dates such as the following.

DEADLINES FOR DROPPING A COURSE:  If you drop a class on or before the Twelfth Class Day, the class will not show up on your transcript.  If you drop a class after that date, the course will show up on the transcript with a “Q” grade.  After October 31, it is not possible to drop a course except for extenuating (usually non-academic) circumstances.

Curriculum Vitae (CV) Requirements

CVs are to be prepared and submitted for the Instructor(s) of Record for an undergraduate classroom course defined as the primary instructor or co-instructors of a course who are responsible for the course content and the assignment of final grades. This includes tenured and tenure-track faculty, lecturers, adjuncts, and graduate assistants (who are not working under the supervision of an instructor of record). It does not include guest lecturers or others who may be brought in to teach less than fifty percent of the class sessions.

The Coordinating Board intends the CV to contain a summary of the faculty member’s career and qualifications, including at a minimum:

1. all institutions of higher education attended with degree(s) earned;
2. all previous teaching positions including the names of the institutions, the position(s), beginning and ending dates; and
3. a list of significant professional publications relevant to the academic positions held including full citations (in whatever format/style is appropriate for the instructor’s discipline) for significant professional publications such as books, chapters, refereed articles, juried performances, works of art, and other scholarly work the faculty judge relevant to the academic positions they held (note: “citation” refers to the publication source of each entry, not a citation index).

Submitting Syllabi and Vitae

Please email a copy of your first-day handout for each course you teach and a short vitae to tanthai@math.utexas.edu by the first class day. Alternatively, you may directly upload your syllabus and vitae to the upload to the Access Syllabi and CV’s System https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/student/coursedocs/syup/. Talk to Tan Thai if you have questions (tanthai@math.utexas.edu).

Absence/Failure Report

You can file an absence/failing report on any student in your class at any time. Go to UT Direct and then the CLIPS menu to access your class. Click on "absence/failing report" and you will be presented with a list of your students and you can list any of ten reasons for the report using the drop-down menu.

How does the Absence/Failure report work?

For each student selected, you may choose up to three standard messages from a list of ten and include comments or suggestions for improving his/her performance or attendance. Once submitted, a secure email message detailing this information is sent to the student, the student's advisor and a report is sent to the dean's office.

Final Examinations

The permission of the Chair is necessary if you wish NOT to give a final examination in an undergraduate course. The department is obliged to report any dispensation from the requirement of having a final exam in such a course to the Dean, who insists that we present a compelling reason to justify the omission of the final, especially when the course in question is a large service course with a heavy enrollment of freshmen and sophomores. Final exams need not, however, be comprehensive exams.

In no course where a final exam is given should there be any deviation from the officially scheduled date, time and place for the exam. Final exam dates and times can be found here. The locations of final exams are set by Official Publications. When set, they will be listed on UT Direct and will also be posted outside PMA 8.100 sometime late in the term. In particular, no "last" midterm that has the semblance and de facto impact of a final exam is permitted. A student is guaranteed that the final exam for any course, which has one, will be administered at the scheduled time and in the appointed place. By the same token, in registering for a class a student commits himself or herself to be present for an exam at that time. Naturally, allowances can be made for individual exceptions, circumstances warranting, at an instructor's discretion. Nevertheless, a generally reluctant attitude is advised towards students seeking privileged final exam times, particularly early ones.

The two class days prior to finals are official pre-final no-class days, on which all classroom activity, including review sessions, is prohibited.  However, you may hold office hours on the dead days.

Class time and classroom changes

Class length

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 50 minutes, starting on the hour

Tuesday, Thursday: 75 minutes, starting as scheduled.

Please be mindful of the changeover period between classes (i.e. on MWF the last 10 minutes of the hour, and on TTh the last 15 minutes of each 90-minute period).  During this period, the instructor for the subsequent class may well need to set up (e.g. launch the classroom computer and projector, distribute test papers), while students often need to get from one part of campus to another.  It’s important that the outgoing instructor/TA respects this.

Students are only required to be available for officially designated class functions, as indicated in the Course Schedule.

When scheduling tests or other organized class activities (e.g., review sessions) arranged by you or by your TA at irregular (= non-class) times, it is recommended to be extremely accommodating towards individuals unable to participate in such activities because of other commitments. 

In the case of a test administered outside the regular class period, the opportunity for a make-up must be provided.

Extra provisions should be in place to extend the benefits that derive from the special activity to all students.

Classroom changes

To request a classroom change, see Tan Thai (tanthai@math) PMA 8.140. 

Do your utmost to cover the syllabi, especially in courses upon which follow-up courses hinge in a critical way. This directive applies in particular to the courses M408C, D, K, L, M, N, S. Syllabi may be found here.

Grade distributions

Grade distributions

The department has no preordained standards for grade distribution (i.e., we set no quotas for the percentage of any specific letter grade in any course).

Teaching Schedules

Teaching schedules

Tentative teaching schedules can be found on the bulletin board outside of PMA 8.140. These may change as circumstances warrant, so please check them regularly.  Request forms for Fall and Spring teaching assignments for the next year will be circulated to continuing faculty in October.

Open Records Policy and Posting of Course Grades

Open Records Policy and Posting of Course Grades

Under existing University policy, the final grade a student receives in a course is part of the confidential record of that student. Both the State and the Federal Open Records laws prohibit the release of any personally identifiable confidential record unless such release has been authorized in writing by each individual involved. Furthermore, the Federal Law states:

"Personally identifiable" means that the data or information includes (a) the name of a student, the student's parent, or other family member, (b) the address of the student, (c) a personal identifier, such as the student's social security number or student number, (d) a list of personal characteristics which would make it possible to identify the student with reasonable certainty, or (e) other information which would make it possible to identify the student with reasonable certainty.

In summary, the Provost's Office policy prohibits the disclosure of any confidential student information in a personally identifiable manner, which now includes name, student identification number, social security number or a portion thereof, without the student's written consent.

Faculty may continue to use student-specific password-protected systems (such as UT Direct and its applications) to communicate academic work grades or other confidential information to individual students. Students may also access their final course grades using UT Direct services called CLIPS, or QUEST. Information about CLIPS and e-grade book can be found at the following site.  http://registrar.utexas.edu/staff/

Adds and drops

The College policies on adding and dropping classes can be found here

• Students are able to add/drop until the 5th class day.
• From Days 5-12 they add classes through the Advising Center, PMA 4.101, and can still drop via ROSE.

You will receive an email detailing add/drop information at the beginning of the semester.

Information about adding and dropping a course as a graduate student can be found on the Graduate School's Website.

"X" (Incomplete) grade

Temporary delay of final course grade.  The symbol X is not issued for student or faculty convenience; it may be issued for one of the following reasons only in the case of compelling, nonacademic circumstances beyond the student's control:

1. missing the final examination;
2. incomplete classroom assignments; or
3. reexamination petition.

If the final course grade is not reported before the end of the next long-session grade reporting period, a grade of F is recorded for the course. The X symbol remains on the student's record. For more, see General Information.

A graduate student may be assigned an X if the student has not completed all assignments before a course ends. If the final course grade is not reported by the end of the grade reporting period in the student's next long-session semester of enrollment, the symbol I (permanent incomplete) is recorded for the course. If the student is not enrolled during a long-session semester for twenty-four months following the end of the semester in which the X is reported, and the instructor does not report a final grade, then the symbol I is recorded for the course. For more, see General Information

Conference courses

"Conference course" is the name for individual instruction or reading course (as opposed to an "organized course," which means a class taught in lecture or seminar mode with an officially scheduled time and location for class meetings, published in the course schedule).

If you agree to supervise a student in such a course, it is recommended that you clarify in writing what work you expect the student to do in order to get credit or to receive a specific letter grade.

Graduate conference courses are given exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Lecturers are not allowed by Graduate School rules to supervise graduate-level conference courses. 

Please see Tan Thai if you have undergraduate conference course questions, or the graduate program coordinator for graduate conference course questions.

Teaching evaluations

Teaching evaluations are mandatory in all organized courses, undergraduate or graduate. They are extremely important in considerations related to reappointment, continuation, and promotion. Participation instructions will be sent to the faculty via email when the forms are available for students. (If you wish to conduct the survey earlier than the last two weeks of the semester, you can talk to Tan Thai, Senior Academic Program Coordinator (tanthai@math.utexas.edu )   The departmental default is for the surveys to be administered electronically; please see Tan Thai (tanthai@math.utexas.edu ) if you have questions.  The results of the survey are reported automatically to the department and are available online for public view as some point after the semester ends.  You may view your own (and others') results via https://utdirect.utexas.edu/ctl/ecis/results/index.WBX).

Grievance protocol

In processing complaints and resolving disputes, the sequence of individual involvement, as needed to settle the matter, goes as follows:

If there is no question of academic dishonesty, the proper line of appeal is

1. Faculty member in charge of the course
2. Departmental ombudsperson
3. Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies
4. CNS Dean

If there is a question of academic dishonesty, the proper line of appeal is

1. Faculty member in charge of the course
2. Dean of Students Office

More information on Academic Integrity    

Please note that academic matters are never referred to the University Ombudsperson offices.

If there is a problem with your TA, please contact the Graduate Coordinator or Graduate Advisor.

If there is a problem involving graders, please see Peter Corrao.

Instructional Services available to Undergraduate Students

1. • CalcLab, https://www.ma.utexas.edu/academics/undergraduate/calclab.
   • Sanger Learning and Career Center, https://ugs.utexas.edu/slc.
   • Disability and Access: https://diversity.utexas.edu/disability/
   • Counseling and Mental Health Center (e.g., for test anxiety, depression), https://cmhc.utexas.edu/.
   • Departmental computer labs are in PMA 8.118 and PMA 7.122. 

Instructional Services available to Graduate Students

• Teaching Resources for Graduate Students
• Disability and Access: https://diversity.utexas.edu/disability/
• CNS Support services: https://cns.utexas.edu/students/support

Instructional Services available to Faculty

• Texas Institute for Discovery Education in Science (TIDES): https://cns.utexas.edu/tides
• Center for Teaching and Learning: https://ctl.utexas.edu/
• Dean of Students Office (e.g., for dealing with academic dishonesty issues, for services available to students with learning disabilities), http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/.
• Faculty Resources for Addressing Scholastic Dishonesty: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/conduct/facultyresources.php
  
• The department has a camcorder and a monitor available for instructional purposes. See staff in PMA 8.100.
• Microphones are available by completing a sign-up sheet. Since we must pick up microphones elsewhere on campus, please let us know at least two days in advance.